INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AUDIT

Components Of An Intellectual Property Audit

An "Intellectual Property Audit" has both legal and business components, including a review of patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyright assets.   The legal component covers asset creation procedures, asset quality evaluations, asset exploitation processes, and so on. The business component is more subtle and is inherent in the fact that intellectual property (IP) pervades all aspects of the modern technological and marketing. Indeed, some major corporations earn their greatest return on their IP assets, and others owe their very existence to the continuing vitality of their intellectual property. An IP audit, therefore, requires an appreciation of the business aspects of IP and, especially, of how IP affects an individual business. The phrase "IP audit" has a wide range of meanings depending on circumstances. Most importantly, the term "audit" as used in this context is not synonymous with "inventory". An IP audit is a rather more extensive review and appraisal than a mere inventory, but it may include an inventory and much more. 

An IP audit can be occasioned by many events, including an external acquisition by assets or stock transfer or by an internal corporate desire to ensure that the company's IP assets and processes are in good repair (e.g. an improvement audit). An audit may also be occasioned by a capital infusion or an impending lawsuit, either as plaintiff or defendant, or other stimuli. 

The audit can be very limited, even to the audit of a single intellectual property right. It can grow to a relatively limited overview to determine the basic adequacy of all IP assets and procedures. Ultimately, it can become a very extensive and comprehensive review of all aspects of an IP rights, acquisitions, maintenance and exploitation programs. In the most extreme, an audit can consume a great deal of time and effort for internal and external staffs. Therefore, at the outset of any discussion of an IP audit, the motivation for, and scope of, what is contemplated must be decided.

Benefits To Managing Your Intellectual Property Portfolio

All companies have a need to know and manage their intellectual property (IP) portfolios. Just as a company meticulously audits and maintains its flow of money, the intellectual property portfolios should periodically undergo the same sort of scrutiny as IP is both directly and indirectly at the forefront of revenue generation (e.g. brand awareness, new inventive products, technological advances to delivering a service, etc.) IP is a core corporate component that few understand and most under appreciate. IP audits are designed to provide valuable insight into your IP portfolios not only for IP asset protection, but also for enhancing a casino’s bottom line.

Intellectual Property portfolio management requires a company to make timely decisions about how best to use its patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyright assets.  Our Dallas IP Portfolio attorneys work with each client to understand their business plan, and assist in developing strategies which protect intellectual property. An IP portfolio audit can be generally broken into the following 8 phases: 

• Managing The Intellectual Property Audit
• Phase I: Structural Familiarization 
• Phase 2: Utility patents (including Business Method/Process Patents)
• Phase 3: Trade Secrets and Proprietary Information
• Phase 4: Trademarks 
• Phase 5: Designs, Design Patents, Mask Works and Utility Models 
• Phase 6: Copyright 
• Phase 7: Dispute resolution
• Phase 8:The Intellectual Property Audit Completion

Intellectual Property Portfolio Attorneys

Our Dallas intellectual property portfolio  attorneys specialize in the area of law protecting the property rights of inventors and we can assist you in analyzing your patent portfolio.  We work with you to developed and maximize your IP portfolio and, once developed, assist you in monitoring your portfolio such that your goals remain met now and into the future.